On April 24, US President Trump said that if the U.S. Postal Service does not immediately increase the delivery fee of the package, he will not approve an emergency loan to the post office. Trump, who has always believed that the post office is poorly managed, will exert more control over the post office.

"The (US) Post Office is a joke. The Post Office should increase the (freight) price of packages by about four times."-Trump

Last month, Trump signed a $ 2 trillion coronavirus economic plan, and the Treasury Department was authorized to provide $ 10 billion in loans to the US Postal Service. A senior Trump administration official and a congressional official previously said that Mnuchin rejected the Senate ’s bipartisan proposal to provide postal service bailouts during negotiations on the bill. The Washington Post reported that the White House hopes to provide the loan as a condition to force the post office to reform.

On the 24th, Trump confirmed that postage increase is one of the new conditions for the post office to obtain loans. "If they do not increase postage, I will not sign any plan, nor will I allow the Finance Minister Minuqin to approve the loan to the post office.

The U.S. Postal Service previously stated that it may not be able to pay employees ’salaries and continue to provide postal services after September. In fact, in recent years, the current status of the US Postal Service has been very difficult. According to reports, after entering the Internet era, the ordinary letter delivery service of the post office was greatly reduced, and only profitable in the package delivery in cooperation with e-commerce.

In this epidemic, the US Postal Service was severely impacted, and the post office ’s revenue fell by 30%. A spokesperson for the postal department said that 1219 of the 630,000 employees in the postal department had positive tests for coronavirus. At the same time, the United States Postal Workers Union said that 44 of the infected employees have died.

Not only that, due to the pandemic, the postal department expects to have a funding gap of US $ 13 billion this year. The virus will force companies to reduce the number of advertisements, directories and other mail, and the volume of mail will be reduced by about 30%.

Combating Amazon by raising courier fees

For years, Trump has accused the postal services of mismanagement, saying that e-commerce sites such as Amazon have used postal services and tried to change the package delivery fees charged by postal services.

In fact, Trump aimed at the postal service when he took office, and once urged the agency to double the courier fees charged by Amazon and other companies.

In recent decades, the decline in the number of primary mail has hit the agency hard, but fortunately there is another bright spot, that is including delivery.

USPS specializes in providing "last mile" courier services for customers. In this service, USPS has launched fierce competition with UPS, FedEx, and even Amazon's express service.

Trump often repeats this statement by raising the parcel rate of Internet shipping companies, especially Amazon, to ease the financial difficulties of the postal industry.

The Post Office has repeatedly defended its arrangement with the e-commerce giant, saying that it provides fair rates for services provided in a highly competitive environment.